“I always thought that I would need to choose between making a lot of money and changing the world … Never in a million years did I think that my efforts to change the world would lead to the next emerging industry.”

It’s high time that potheads get some respect. Turns out, when you make their vice of choice legal, they will indeed turn out to buy it on the open market, even for a higher price, instead of working the old, familiar backchannels. According to Mic.com:

When Washington became the second state to allow legal sales of recreational marijuana last week, Seattle only had a single store, Cannabis City, open for business. It ran out of weed in three days. Cannabis City opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday with 4.5 kg of marijuana ready to be purchased. By the end of Thursday, it had all been bought. It’s even more impressive when you realize that customers were only allowed to buy a maximum of 6 grams each, which means the store made at least 750 individual sales. …

Seattle wasn’t the only city whose store was a (limited) success. Top Shelf in Bellingham, which made the state’s first ever legal sale, set a new record with first-day sales of more than $30,000 thanks to serving more than 1,200 customers. It may be a surprise given how well stores did with their limited product, but not everyone is totally sold on the future of recreational marijuana in Washington. Retailers like Cannabis City have competition, both from medical marijuana (which is cheaper and often relatively easy to obtain) and old fashioned illegal marijuana (which is just cheaper). In addition to the in-state growing restriction, Washington applies a 25% sales tax on recreational weed, making it pretty pricey when compared to those other options.

The Western states aren’t the only ones making news on the subject of recreational drugs.

Earlier this summer, I got a new teaching job that starts next year, and my college-age sister got laid off from her nanny job (with severance pay!). To celebrate both of our freedoms, we took a 10-day road trip from Oakland to Seattle and back.

WYNC has a fascinating interview with a guy named "Chuck" a marijuana dealer from San Francisco, Calif.—where marijuana has been decriminalized and is legal for medicinal purposes—who came to New York, where marijuana is 100 percent illegal, to sell weed and quadruple his income. They also talk to special agent who is trying to stop the illegal flow of marijuana.